Gazing at the Stars
by AccessBlade
Summary: Cassiel as Granide's Descender encountered and fought Guede several days back during a solo mission. Days later, the fight and Guede's words still replay clearly in her mind.


**Right now, I am currently hooked on Sylph Writer's **_**Fairy Tales and Brave Vesperia**_. **That's what gave me inspiration to write this since the main canon Tales character starring in this is Yuri! This would be my first time writing him, so I hope I get him in character. If not, sorry. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Tales characters. Only the made up Descender whose appearance and name you get to decide. **

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**Gazing at the Stars**

Whenever Cassiel wanted to be alone she usually locked herself in her room. But the isolation of being in her room was now suffocating as she had been in there for nearly a day. So when it was late in the night and the Descender was certain that everyone was asleep, the world protector slipped out of her room.

On her way out to the Van Eltia's deck, Cassiel paused several times to avoid waking up the other members of Ad Libitum. When she finally made it out, the cold air hit her like Celcius' ice attacks, though not as harshly and without the pain of getting hit by icicles.

To the Descender, the cool air was refreshing as the wind whipped her midnight coloured hair into her face.

Tilting her head towards the sky, Cassiel stared up at the stars. No matter how hard she tried, she could hear Guede's bitter words after their last battle.

_"You're only a puppet!" Guede's hetero chromatic red and gold eyes glared at her, hatred etched into each one. Despite the fact that the others weren't with her at the time, the Descender had still managed to beat her darker half, the source of negativity, to a stand still. __"You only exist because the World Tree is too weak to take care of the world's problems!" _

_"Even though brother," Cassiel said, flicking the blood off her sword. Most of it was from the cut on her arm, but some of it belonged to Guede. "I shall carry out the World Tree's will. Because the will of the Tree is Granide's wish!"_

_Guede snarled, his eyes flashing with a multitude of emotions before he raised his grotesque arm and aimed a ball of negativity at her. _

_The Descender was ready though so she brought down her sword, slashing at the dark energy. But before she could purify it, the force of the attack threw her back into a tree where she painfully slid down it. _

_By the time Cassiel regained use of her senses and the area around her stopped spinning, her brother was gone. _

That had been nearly three days ago. She had been performing a mission of gathering ingredients for a potion when she had stumbled across Guede. The surprise encounter started out and ended in the usual fashion their being in the same area did. Fighting against each other and then exchanging words at the end of the battle.

Cassiel did not want to fight her brother but really, what choice did she have? He always initiated a fight and if she didn't fight back he would go after her friends.

And what right did she have to judge him for his actions? Sure Guede was considered evil for what he did so far; converting people's negative emotions as energy for his attacks, using their negative emotions to turn them into monsters and of course having three members of their guild nearly turn against them.

But was he really evil?

As far as Cassiel knew Guede just didn't want to disappear like he did in the past. And she couldn't blame him. But that was something that she kept to herself, knowing that if she told the others some would become divided over the matter. So instead, Cassiel held her silence about Guede. It was best for them to think that her brother was the bad guy. The Descender did not want to fight her other half, but unfortunately she could not ignore him either since he seemed hell bent on destroying their creator, the World Tree.

And that was something Cassiel, as the Descender, could not ignore.

"Aren't you cold?"

Even though she didn't sense him, Cassiel covered up her surprise and turned to face the long haired man behind her.

"Hello Yuri." She said, forcing herself to smile at him. It wasn't that she didn't like him, but at the moment Cassiel did not feel like smiling.

The swordsman didn't say anything, opting to stand beside her and watch the dark water beneath them. He didn't say anything and after what felt like an eternity, Cassiel was about ready to tell him to go back inside if he had nothing to say to her or go watch the water on the other side of the ship, he finally spoke.

"So, what's on your mind?"

"The fact that you're standing outside here with me in the middle of the night." It was a cool tone mixed in with bluntness that said 'go away'.

The long dark haired man gave her a flat stare which she returned by glaring at him. Granite coloured eyes met with sky blue as one tried to get the other to bend to their will.

"Seriously," Yuri said after a long bout of silence. "What is it?"

"Is it really any of your concern?" Cassiel looked away from him.

"No." Cassiel opened her mouth to speak, but Yuri cut her off. "But you've got a whole lot of people concerned about _you._"

"Because I'm the Descender, right? The protector, the saviour, the one destined to defeat the evil currently plaguing the world." Cassiel winced at the bitter tone as soon as the words left her mouth. She hadn't meant for it to sound like she didn't want to save Granide, but that's how it came out as.

The man beside her didn't say anything, which didn't come as a surprise. Yuri was one of the older swordsmen in the guild and was more level-headed than the others. Instead of rushing head first into a battle like a certain red clad twin swordsman did, Yuri wasn't so rash as to be the one who always struck the first blow.

He was the type to let the enemy go first before cutting them down.

When the girl glanced at Yuri, she was surprised to see him glaring at her. There was something in his eyes, she couldn't quite describe it, that scared her.

"What?" She said warily.

"Is that the only reason why you go around battling Guede whenever he shows up?"

Cassiel flinched slightly and Yuri didn't miss it.

"That's why you've been acting so strange for the past several days, isn't it? You encountered Guede during one of your missions."

It was the Descender's turn to glare as she fought the urge to shove him.

"What of it?"

There was nothing but silence as the wind blew their dark strands of hair behind them. They both stared out into the water, aware of the tension between them.

"What is Guede to you?"

"What?"

Cassiel turned sharply towards Yuri. His gaze was steady, telling her that he wasn't going to leave without any answers. And that if she tried to ditch him, he would track her down to the ends of Granide if that's what it took to get her to talk.

"My other half." When Yuri didn't talk, Cassiel sighed. "He can also be considered my brother."

There was more silence and when the Descender glanced at him, he seemed to be deep in thought.

"So you're saying that this entire time you've been fighting against your _brother_?" Cassiel was surprised by the hard tone of his voice and flinched at his his equally hard gaze when their eyes made contact again.

"Brother or not, he's still trying to destroy the World Tree. And without the World Tree, Granide will die."

"Why didn't you tell us this?"

"I thought that you already knew that the World Tree is the source of Granide's life?"

"Not that." Yuri said, his voice low and steady but anger also evident in it. Seeing Cassiel flinch again and her blank stare, the man decided to momentarily calm himself down before he spoke again. "That Guede was your brother?"

Yuri realized that he was scaring her, even though she hid her fear well. There was probably something about scaring your world's saviour, but at the moment he didn't care. He was getting tired of some of the guild members worrying over the Descender whenever she kept something to herself. Well, it wasn't the secret keeping part that annoyed him so much. Everyone had secrets.

It was the fact that she continued smiling even if the secret was something that ended up hurting her and everyone else in the end.

"Because it's so much easier that way." Cassiel smiled sadly, unable to keep her latest worry from the swordsman standing next to her. "I mean, if I went and told everyone that the evil doer in this whole thing was my brother, it could cause problems."

"You mean people will hesitate about destroying him?"

The Descender internally winced at Yuri's bluntness. Couldn't he have been just a bit more tactful?

"That... and the guild might become divided over the fact whether to trust me or not." Cassiel paused. "You know my view on this, right?"

"Is it similar to Kannono's?"

Cassiel nodded. Kannono was the only person in Ad Libitum she confided in about all of her secrets. She didn't quite understand why she did it, but was it because the pink haired girl had similar to mana to a Descender? That was something that always confused her until the trip to the tower that suddenly rose out of the sea. There it was revealed by the Niata that the girl was the reincarnation of a world protector, the former Descender of Pasca.

"Yeah. She doesn't see Guede as some evil villain who has to be stopped like a few of the other members do." Cassiel murmured. "He's just... how do I say it... not as favoured in the world as I am. And that's why he's so hell bent on trying to kill the tree... that made him what he is."

"I think if I were in his position, I'd be as bitter and as angry as he is."

"Um... what?" The Descender stared at him.

She didn't expect Yuri to be so... understanding. But then again, she didn't really interact with him a lot. She went on one or two missions with him in the past, but that was pretty much it.

Yuri sighed loudly. "I kind of understand how he feels." Taking Cassiel's silence as consent that she was listening, he continued. "You know where I'm from, right?"

Cassiel fidgeted for a second, frowning as she tried to remember. "The continent of Terca Lumireis, right? Along with Estelle. I remember when you two snuck onto the guild." She giggled weakly at the memory.

It had been during the night when practically everyone in the guild was asleep. Yuri and Estelle had earlier in the day boarded the ship when they landed in a harbor to get supplies. When they had tried to sneak in during the late hours, Jade had caught them red-handed and didn't even seem phased by the fact that Ad Libitum had stowaways.

In fact, he looked down right amused.

While Jade was busy contemplating what to do with them, Cassiel and Chat had come to the rescue and the latter offered them a choice of joining Ad Libitum which they took, since they were practically at the mercy of the captain of the ship and a colonel.

"Right." Yuri's tone suggested that he was also remembering his first encounter with the colonel. "Well Estelle and I were trying to get away from the Imperial Knights chasing us. They chased us all the way from the capital."

"Zaphias?" Cassiel asked, remembering the name of Terca Lumireis' capital city.

"Yup." It was Yuri's turn to be bitter as he remembered the unfair treatment towards the people of the Lower Quarter in the Capital. "To the nobility, the commoners don't matter much and they turn a blind eye towards whatever trouble arose amongst the people as long as it didn't involve them. The lower class people are looked down on as vermin. Similar to how people think emotions like jealousy are ugly."

"When such feelings are actually natural but people still spurn it." Cassiel murmured. "And?"

"Let's just say that I don't like the nobility much because of that." Yuri rolled his eyes. "Most of the captains in the Imperial Knights are nobility and lead the knights, who in turn are supposed to be protecting people. But a lot of them don't do their jobs properly so hence the commoners dislike of them."

"As Guede doesn't like me for being the world's beloved saviour. Because everyone hates him and everyone... likes me."

"True. Though if he was the Descender, then you would end up being the negativity and YOU would be the one who was trying to destroy the World Tree."

"Would I?"

"No. But you'd probably be just as bitter." Yuri shook his head and ruffled her hair. "Come on. Stop worrying about things you can't help."

"True." Cassiel sighed again before standing up and looking Yuri straight in the eye. "So why did you come out here anyways? Actually, how did you know I was out here in the first place?"

Yuri smirked. "I'm a light sleeper and I heard someone up and walking. Then they stopped. And continued walking. That happened several times so you can see why I got suspicious. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was our Descender."

_You weren't surprised at all, _Cassiel didn't say it outloud but the words were written all over her face.

Yuri smirked again before heading back towards the ship.

"Come on. We better get inside before you catch a cold."

Cassiel stared blankly after him. She had no idea what in Granide was on the man's mind, but somehow talking to him made her feel better. Following Yuri back into the ship, she made a note to ask him how he did it.

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**I am finally done! After several days I am finally done! I would have added a bit more but then it would have gotten off topic so... yeah. **

**I hope Yuri's in character! Please tell me if he isn't. I know he isn't completely OoC but I can't be sure if I captured his character right either.  
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